Michael Morris’ Rosh Hashanah Message for 2025

To my Israeli brothers and sisters, I offer my unconditional support. Just like many families, we do not always agree but we love, protect, and support each other. I want you to know, I need you to know, there are many of us in America that share my sentiments including most of my friends and many of our readers. You are not alone; however, you shoulder the bulk of the burden.

It is not easy to be criticized at every turn, which is why I do not criticize. It is not easy to be judged with every move, which is why I do not judge. It is not easy having the whole world watch you in a spotlight of contempt, but unfortunately, it is easy to get wrapped up in propaganda, which is why I do not believe everything that I read, but instead, I go to Israel every year to see for myself. Certainly, I have my opinions, but everyone has their opinions. Sometimes I share, often times I do not, because an opinion is not a fact, it is not the basis for a decision that I make, it is merely how one feels and is too often misplaced.

Israel is at war. I cannot put myself in your shoes. No one has taken any of my family hostage. No one has been terrorizing my hometown for decades. No one has declared myself, my religion, and my country illegal, forfeit and in need of wiping from the map and planet. But I do see how Israel holds itself to standards that no other country ever has. I see the moral clarity in which Israel uses to guide itself during this war, which no other country, to date, has ever exercised. No country is perfect, no war is good, and casualties happen. Israel is no exception, and Israel isn’t the only country, right now, defending itself from terrorists.

I wish I could offer solutions, alas, I can only offer support. Please know, I will offer support every day until this war is over and our Palestinian neighbors love their children more than they hate us Jews (to paraphrase Golda Meir).

I want to leave you with this, my friends. Almost every Jew I know here in America supports you. There will always be some self-hating Jews, there will always be some people who think they know better; there will always be people who find the need to tell you what to do, and there will always be people who will offer their opinions as truth (did you know that around 1 percent of the world population still believes the world is flat?), but that doesn’t make their opinions fact, it just exacerbates an already precarious situation. I stand with you, many of us stand with you,

Am Yisrael Chai.

Michael Morris is the Owner & Publisher of Atlanta Jewish Times.